Updated: 2015-01-06 06:40
Several young graduates return to their hometowns to work as "new farmers". Though their initial earnings are meager, they have dreams of a great future for green farming. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
An ecological farm, named Hometown Farm, has seen some unusual young farmers coming to plant vegetables and raise livestock since its establishment in 2012 in Jingxi town of Fuzhou city, capital of south China's Fujian province.
The farm, co-founded by the Rural Development Center of Renming University of China and Zhenro Foundation in Fujian, has championed agriculture in communities by urging university graduates to develop green agriculture by returning to their hometown. The farm aims to provide green vegetables to the rural residents.
Lin Zezhong, the first new graduate farmer there, farms 0.67 hectares of farmland at zero rent for the first three years of his contract. Ever since then, he has lived a peasant life by spending most of the day working on his farm, a life different from his friends' in the city. However, he thinks that is a good way to lift confidence in food safety and encourage people to care about agriculture.
Lin Zezhong finds his clothes soaked in sweat due to the sultry weather on a farm in Jingxi town in south China's Fujian province. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Due to the green planting methods used on the farm, the young man saw a poor harvest of vegetables resulting from pests and extreme weather. Despite the loss and people's doubts, he still has faith in his career.
"You just see my loss", he said, "You can't see the great future in my heart".
This photo depicts an ecological farm named Hometown Farm. The farm, located at Jingxi county and 25km from downtown Fuzhou, capital of Fujian province, has 13 hectares of farmland and 20 hectares of woodland. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Lin Zezhong uses a tractor to plow the land. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Lin Zezhong carefully fixes cucumber vines on iron stands. The cucumbers' leaves are full of holes caused by the pests since he never uses pesticides. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Lin Zezhong finds a bug wriggling on a vegetable stalk. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Su Wenwei and Xue Jingmao (right) go to the farm to help Lin Zezhong harvest the vegetables. The two young men, both born in the 1990s, are graduates from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Lin Zezhong reads articles on his cellphone while Liu Jihu, another volunteer on the ecological farm, has breakfast at the canteen. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Liu Jihu, who is 26 years old, comes from east China's Shandong province and is raising 26 pigs on the farm. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]
Liu Jihu pours water into the pig sty to keep dust away, part of his daily routine before feeding the pigs. [Photo/www.cnchemicals.com]